El Segundo Power Plant Aims To Save Sea Life

2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc & Associate Press
CBS News
07/23/2007

An El Segundo power plant wants to be the first along the South Bay coast to build a closed system to cool its generators rather than circulating seawater through the plant, which ends up killing sea life, it was reported Monday.

The NRG power plant filed plans with state energy regulators to build a closed system, the Daily Breeze reported.

Steve Hoffman, NRG's western region president, told the newspaper he hoped to have the go-ahead from the state by the end of the year.

"This is the first time we've seen an energy company take action on their own without pressure," Sarah Abramson of the environmental group Heal the Bay told the Daily Breeze. “I really see it as signifying the downfall of once-through cooling."

The AES power plant in Redondo Beach and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's Scattergood generating plant near LAX both suck in seawater that is returned to the ocean.

Earlier this year, the practice suffered a blow when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency had no basis for letting electricity generating stations re-circulate ocean water if other measures were taken, such as replacing sea life with fish nurseries.

The underlying lawsuit was filed groups including the Surfrider Foundation and Santa Monica Baykeeper, and the ruling forced the EPA to suspend rules it made in 2004.

Hoffmann said NRG decided to reverse course in large part because of technology that was unavailable two years ago.

In place of using seawater, NRG plans to use an air-cooled system that allows for water and steam to be recycled and re-circulated. The plant would sit on a slightly larger footprint and also include two wßter storage tanks, the application states. A 10-foot seawall would also be moved toward the western property line to mask sounds for those on the beach bike path, the Daily Breeze reported.

The DWP is exploring closed cooling system in which the Scattergood plant would share recycled water with the next-door Hyperion sewage treatment plant.